The consumer price index (CPI) rose for the second straight month, bringing the yearly inflation rate to 2.35 percent last month, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
While all seven sub-indexes rose across the board, economists and academics attributed the CPI’s growth to the low base effect and increased gasoline prices, saying there was no inflationary pressure.
“The major reason for the increased inflation rate was that fuel prices saw a yearly increase of 25.8 percent, contributing 0.17 percentage points to the growth,” DGBAS section chief Wu Chao-ming (吳昭明) told a media briefing.
The core CPI, which is used to track long-term inflation because it excludes volatile vegetable, fruit, fish and energy prices, grew 1.01 percent last month from a year earlier, snapping an eight-month contraction streak, Wu said.
DGBAS data showed that in the first two months of this year, the CPI rose 1.3 percent compared with the same period last year, with merchandise prices rising 3.28 percent.
“The economy is slowly regaining momentum and international raw material prices are rising, so consumer price hikes are inevitable, indicating growing demand,” Wu said. “But due to still severe labor market conditions, commodity prices will not likely increase greatly.”
The CPI rose 0.53 percent last month from January on increased food prices, babysitting charges, taxi fares and travel expenses because of the Lunar New Year holidays, the data showed.
The wholesale price index increased 5.87 percent year-on-year last month, down from 6.74 recorded in January, because of the increased prices of oil products and chemical materials, it said.
Cheng Cheng-mount (鄭貞茂), head economist at Citigroup Taiwan Inc, said by telephone that last month’s CPI growth didn’t indicate inflation because the increase was “reasonable” because the inflation rate contracted last year.
“After allowing for the Lunar New Year factors, the CPI’s growth [of more than 2 percent] is temporary,” Cheng said, adding that in the second half of the year the CPI was expected to rise by about 1 percent.
Yang Chia-yen (楊家彥), a director at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院), said inflationary pressure was not a concern so far, but the government should remain on alert for it over the next few months.
“Compared with last year, gasoline prices increased last month, and the base effect should be taken into account as well,” Yang said by telephone, adding that the inflation rate should remain low in the third and fourth quarters.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS